A satellite system may have a constellation of communications satellites that provides services to users with electronic devices such as portable electronic devices and home/office equipment. The satellites may support communications between the electronic devices of the users and gateways. Each gateway may have satellite transceiver circuitry that transmits and receives satellite signals. Each gateway may also have an optical add-drop multiplexer coupled to a fiber ring and radio-frequency-over-fiber circuitry coupled between the satellite transceiver circuitry and the optical add-drop multiplexer. A metropolitan point-of-presence may be in communication with the fiber ring and may have modems for centrally processing communications (received and transmitted in an intermediate frequency) in the satellite system.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A satellite communications system comprising: a satellite constellation, comprising a first set of satellites having first orbital parameters and a second set of satellites having second orbital parameters; at least one ground station configured to communicate with the satellite constellation; at least one modem located at a first point of presence and configured to communicate with the first and second sets of satellites using the at least one ground station, wherein the first point of presence comprises a router communicatively coupled to the at least one modem; and a second point of presence communicatively coupled to the router through a network.
2. The satellite communications system of claim 1, wherein the first set of satellites are in low earth orbits.
3. The satellite communications system of claim 2, wherein the second set of satellites are in low earth orbits.
4. The satellite communications system of claim 1, wherein the first set of satellites are at an orbital altitude greater than 500 km.
5. The satellite communications system of claim 4, wherein the second set of satellites are at the orbital altitude.
6. The satellite communications system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the second orbital parameters are different from a corresponding orbital parameter of the first orbital parameters.
7. The satellite communications system of claim 1, wherein the satellite constellation includes at least 10 satellites.
8. The satellite communications system of claim 1, wherein the first and second sets of satellites are at orbital altitudes between 500 km and 1500 km.
9. A method of operating a satellite communications system, the method comprising: with at least one ground station, communicating with a user equipment via a satellite constellation, wherein the satellite constellation includes satellites having one or more different orbital parameters; with at least one modem located at a first point of presence, communicating with first and second sets of satellites using the at least one ground station, wherein the first point of presence comprises a router communicatively coupled to the at least one modem; and receiving, at the router, communications from a second point of presence via a network.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the satellites in the satellite constellation are in low earth orbits.
11. The method of 9, further comprising conveying Ka-band signals between at least two of the satellites in the satellite constellation.
12. The method of claim 9, wherein the satellite constellation has between 10 and 100 satellites.
13. The method of claim 9, wherein the satellites in the satellite constellation are at an orbital altitude between 500 km and 1500 km.
14. A satellite communications system comprising: at least one ground station; and a first point of presence communicably coupled to the at least one ground station, wherein the first point of presence comprises at least one modem and a router communicatively coupled to the at least one modem, the at least one modem being configured to communicate, via the at least one ground station, with a first set of satellites and a second set of satellites in a satellite constellation, wherein the first set of satellites have first orbital parameters and the second set of satellites have second orbital parameters different from the first orbital parameters, and wherein the router is communicatively coupled to a second point of presence through a network.
15. The satellite communications system of claim 14, wherein the satellite constellation has between 10 and 100 satellites.
16. The satellite communications system of claim 14, wherein at least two satellites in the satellite constellation are configured to communicate with each other using Ka-band signals.
17. The satellite communications system of claim 14, wherein satellites in the satellite constellation are at an orbital altitude between 500 km and 1,500 km.
18. The satellite communications system of claim 14, wherein the network comprises an optical ring.
19. The satellite communications system of claim 14, wherein the first point of presence is on a first continent and the second point of presence is on a second continent, different from the first continent.
20. The satellite communications system of claim 14 wherein satellites in the satellite constellation are in low earth orbits.
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May 8, 2023
May 20, 2025
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